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Media Platforms Design TeamBack in 1988, you could rent a 1953 MG TD, unrestored, from National Car Rental’s Emerald Club fleet at the San Francisco airport, as well as a handful of Ferrari 328s and a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado from private renters in Southern California. But today’s it’s easier than ever to rent a real sports car. Prices range from a reasonable $87 per day for a to $5500 a day for a Lamborghini Aventador, and credible rental companies are expanding their fleets as more customers demand exciting rides for “bucket list” vacations and for summer home transportation....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor many people, the 8-megapixel photos their smartphone camera takes are good enough. Those that want more than a quick snapshot could spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on a digital SLR camera. But even the doesn’t hold a candle to at Duke University. His customized camera takes photos that are gigapixels in size, dwarfing the best SLRs. fanciest consumer cameraDavid Brady’s projectNormally, if you want a bigger photo, you would get a wider camera lens....

The internet is an incredible achievement. It changed the world. It contains the sum total of human knowledge. And this weird website where animated mountains read tweets at you is the best thing on it, bar none. Mountains of Mouthness is an WebGL-based demo where a pair of animated mountains just shout tweets back and forth at each other, letting the beautiful poetry of each linger in the digital valley as echos trail off into the distance....

A team at the Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences has created a computer algorithm that can guess a person’s biological age just by scanning his or her face. Biological age, or your “true age” is the condition of one’s body as indicated by certain biomarkers, as opposed to your ordinary chronological age. (For example, if a person is 40 but has the body of a 55-year-old because of years of drug abuse or a serious illness....

Media Platforms Design TeamApple’s Craig Federighi introduces OS X Mavericks at WWDC 2013. Kimberly White/Getty Images.Technology diehards circle only a few dates a year in bold red marker. The first week in January brings the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Microsoft’s Build conference is a must. Don’t forget Google’s I/O conference later this month. But there’s an unidentifiable energy that surrounds Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Maybe it’s because Apple has a track record of being a disruptive hardware maker, having led the charge on portable music players, tablets, and smartphones....

Media Platforms Design Team LOS ANGELES–As sprightly and as poised as the four-cylinder Acura TSX is, a quick scan of the spec sheet would probably send torque junkies to more powerful pastures. That car has just 201 hp and 170 lb.-ft. of torque–not exactly the stuff of our 1/4-mile dreams. Well, Acura decided that the TSX could use a bit more muscle under the hood too. So iit has added a new model to the lineup and shoehorned the 280 hp V6 from the Acura TL sedan into the TSX’s smaller package....

Boeing Shows Off 787 Dreamliner to Eager Buyers This weekend, Boeing officially unveiled its much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner, the aircraft giant’s first new major passenger plane since the 777 was first launched in 1994. Forty-seven airlines worldwide have already placed 600 orders for the fuel-efficient jumbo jet, giving it a head start on the rival A380 from Airbus. FIRST LOOK: Inside Boeing’s 787 New DreamlinerVIDEO: Test Flight on the Airbus A380Alien Life Forms Could Defy All Earthly Conventions Scientists searching for life on other planets are rethinking what exactly that means, after a report published late last week urged them to look for so-called “weird life....

Since 1902, Popular Mechanics has been the authority on how your world works. We bring our audience the latest news on innovations and inventions across the automotive, DIY, science, technology, and outdoor spaces. We also serve our readers with the knowledge they need to get the most out of life, whether that’s how to change a tire, how to build a farmhouse table, how to find your lost phone, or how to hike the Appalachian Trail....

Media Platforms Design TeamCharlie Shrem, the vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, and Robert Faiella (aka BTCKing), were arrested Sunday for allegedly laundering more than $1 million in bitcoin on the now-defunct bitcoin marketplace Silk Road. Shrem and Faiella are charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and “operating an unlicensed money transmitting business,” according to the criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan U.S. attorney. Shrem is also charged with failing to file a suspicious activity report, thereby violating the Bank Secrecy Act....

View full post on YoutubeDisney’s newest artist is likely to go unpaid. And maybe even unfed. But it won’t mind.BeachBot looks like a ladybug and draws pictures in the sand like a pro. Measuring 60 cm long and 40 cm high and wide, it uses 3 wheels to scoot around. Its laser scanner is used to constantly locate itself with the help of reflective poles around the drawing area. In this video, the adorable little urchin draws a sea turtle and a fish right out of Finding Nemo with aplomb....

We tested the claims of one late night As Seen On TV tool to sharpen blunt blades galore. The results? Not so sharp.The Claim"The ultimate sharpening tool" puts a razor’s edge on everything from dull blades, knives, scissors to workshop tools.The Test After test cuts with dull scissors and knife blades, we measured the improvement in cut speed and ease after sharpening with the Samurai Shark. The test included a before and after attempt at slicing a dish sponge, as the ad demonstrated....

When it comes to electric propulsion, motorcycle companies are way ahead of carmakers. While electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf are still in the development phase, there are around a dozen credible e-bikes on sale today that offer a lot more than just green credentials: near-silent operation, running costs that amount to pennies per week, low insurance rates, little maintenance and uniquely fun performance. Riding an electric bike is probably a lot more conventional than you might think....

Q: Many of us can’t afford a new Prius, and are considering buying used. I’m looking at a 2001 Prius with 41,000 miles, in great condition, with an asking price of $11,200.For a person on a budget like mine, would I be taking on a big risk, or should I stick with a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla? My current car is a 1993 Honda Accord with 207,000 miles, so I keep my cars for a long time....

There are few things more annoying than a laggy phone that takes whole seconds to register a touch. And in order to keep that nightmare from being a reality, Google’s enlisted this touchy robot to test Android and Chrome OS devices to make sure their reaction times are up to snuff.Custom built for Google by Finnish company OptoFidelity, the Chrome Touchbot isn’t just a robot finger; it’s also a robot eye....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe PromiseVerizon and Motorola seem to be getting along pretty swimmingly well these days. The Droid–that would be their previous Android-powered smartphone collaboration–received nearly unanimous applause from tech critics. So it’s not really surprising that the new Motorola Devour doesn’t stray far from the Droid formula. This is a slightly lesser version of the Droid, with a slightly lesser price tag (that’d be $50 less), that keeps most of its older brother’s key features intact....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou can do a lot with 3D printing—even create a working model jet engine. As a final project for a jet engine manufacturing course at the University of Virginia, students led by Professor David Sheffler constructed a one-quarter-scale working replica of the Rolls-Royce AE3007 turbofan jet engine (which is found on the Air Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV) that spins and whirs furiously, and that was built from plastic using 3D printing....

When a natural disaster destroys a city’s medical facilities, victims rely on field hospitals to function in their place. Setting up a self-sustaining hospital, however, requires a massive logistical effort that must be performed on a tight deadline. Conditions in earthquake-stricken Haiti are especially challenging, since tons of equipment must be transported across long distances to an area with poor infrastructure and many inaccessible areas. No one knows the challenges of setting up a field hospital in a disaster area better than the staff at Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a nonprofit medical organization dedicated to humanitarian aid....

HABBANIYAH, Iraq, July 21 — Al Taqaddum is the biggest logistics base for Marines in the theater, sitting on a plateau here not too far from Fallujah, with a massive airfield serving as home to Chinooks, Hueys and a variety of big, fixed-wing aircraft, including UAVs. While this area used to be home to a violent infestation of Al Qaeda operatives and other insurgents, Marines have worked hard to clear it....

Americans up and down the east coast felt the tremors from a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck near Mineral, Va. this afternoon. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter was only 41 miles from Richmond, Va., and 83 miles from Washington, D.C. The quake happened just about 1 kilometer, or barely more than half a mile, below ground. That helped the tremors spread through the Mid-Atlantic region. Here the PM’s home, the 23rd floor of the Hearst Tower in Manhattan, the shaking brought work to a quick standstill as we raced to the USGS website to see the extent of the quake—and to Twitter to see reports flooding in from people reporting that they felt the earthquake....

Mars One has a grand plan to beat the big names in aerospace to the first manned mission to the Red Planet. But the chances of the dream ever getting off the ground appear to grow slimmer by the day (especially after an insider revealed some more of the organization’s troubles this week).Mars One doesn’t have a proven spacecraft or a clear plan to sustain its human habitation on Mars. But here’s another problem—perhaps one you hadn’t thought about—that’s dogging this mission....